Protecting You: A Small Town Romance Origin Story (The Bailey Brothers Book 1)

by Claire Kingsley

  Protecting You

  The Bailey Brothers Book One: Origin Story

  Claire Kingsley

  Copyright © 2020 by Claire Kingsley

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, or incidents are products of the author’s imagination and used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental or fictionalized.

  Published by Always Have, LLC

  Edited by Elayne Morgan

  Cover design by Lori Jackson

  Cover photography by Wander Aguiar Photography

  Cover model: Andrew Biernat

  www.clairekingsleybooks.com

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Keep in touch with CK

  About this book

  1. Asher

  2. Asher

  3. Grace

  4. Asher

  5. Grace

  6. Asher

  7. Grace

  8. Asher

  9. Grace

  10. Grace

  11. Asher

  12. Grace

  13. Grace

  14. Asher

  15. Grace

  16. Asher

  17. Grace

  18. Dear Asher

  Bonus Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Claire Kingsley

  About the Author

  For all my readers. Your love, support, and excitement for this series means everything.

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  About this book

  One night brings them together. Another night tears them apart.

  Grace Miles misses her easy friendship with Asher, but growing up means growing apart. And really, how could he fall for her when they spent their childhood getting muddy in the creek and splitting sticks of gum?

  But this summer, something feels different. If Grace didn’t know better, she’d think Asher was flirting with her. Those dark eyes, hard body, and wicked smile make her insides swirl and her heart dare to hope for things she’s convinced herself she’ll never have.

  Falling for your best friend shouldn’t be complicated, but for Asher Bailey, loving Grace is anything but simple. The road to romance isn’t smooth thanks to his pack of wild brothers who are protective of the girl next door, a take-no-sass grandmother, a small town where gossip is a spectator sport, and a feud that spans generations.

  But Asher realizes his feelings are too big to ignore. Loving her isn’t the risk. Losing her would be.

  And one night, one kiss, changes everything.

  Finally admitting their feelings is the beginning of their happily ever after. Until their fairy tale love story is tragically interrupted, and neither of them will ever be the same.

  Author’s note: Lifelong soulmates, ridiculous pranks, brother shenanigans, and a feuding town. Protecting You is the Bailey Brothers series origin story. Be there when it begins and fall in love with this wild band of unruly brothers. The series is meant to be read in order, and Grace and Asher’s story concludes in Fighting for Us.

  1

  Asher

  Age 11

  I startled at the sharp sound of grown-ups yelling. Dropping my stick in the trickling creek water, I whipped around to look, but my brothers were the only ones around. Evan was in a tree, probably trying to get away from the twins. Levi and Logan splashed downstream from me with Gavin, who was covered head to toe in mud.

  Someone yelled again—a man’s voice, loud and booming—and my stomach twisted. I didn’t know why, but even if they weren’t yelling at me, the sound of grown-ups fighting always gave me a stomachache.

  Gram and Grandad never yelled, especially not at each other. Which meant it had to be Grace’s mom, Miss Naomi, and her dad, Mr. Miles.

  Grace’s dad didn’t live with them like some dads did, but he came to visit sometimes. I hated it when he came over. Not because it meant Grace would be busy and couldn’t come outside with me, although I hated that too. She was my best friend and we saw each other every day, except when her dad was visiting.

  The problem was, everyone got upset when Mr. Miles was here. Once I heard Gram say he always left messes behind. I used to think she meant he didn’t clean up his dishes, but now I wondered if she meant a different kind of mess. A grown-up mess.

  The yelling didn’t stop, the loud voices carrying all the way down to the creek. I hopped over the shallow water and ran up the slope toward Grace’s house. If this was making my stomach hurt, she was probably really upset.

  I needed to find her.

  It sounded like her parents were out front, so I raced across the grass. Gram was working in the garden, but she didn’t call for me as I ran by and veered toward the space between our two houses.

  Grace wasn’t in her backyard, and I didn’t see her on the side of the yard that faced our house. I slowed to a walk and carefully crept toward the front. I peeked onto their front porch but didn’t see her there either.

  Then I felt dumb. Of course she wasn’t sitting on the porch while her parents yelled at each other.

  She’d be hiding.

  We had a lot of good hiding places. Gavin found the best ones, but he was also the smallest and could probably fit into a snake hole if he tried. Most of our favorite spots weren’t near our houses. They were out on Gram and Grandad’s land, past the gardens.

  I hoped Grace had run down the hill and jumped the creek. Maybe she was waiting it out in a tree, or had gone out to the spot she called the fairy garden where she couldn’t hear her parents fighting.

  But I’d been playing at the creek all morning—bored without her—and I hadn’t seen her. If she were upset and wanted to hide out there, she’d have come to get me first.

  Which meant she was hiding around here. Watching. Listening to them fight.

  It made my stomach hurt worse.

  I glared at Mr. Miles from behind the cover of a bush. Why did he have to shout so much? He was a big man, tall and always dressed like grown-ups on TV shows. His shirts weren’t flannel like Grandad wore, but they had buttons, and sometimes he wore a tie.

  I hated him. I hated his loud voice and his fancy car. But mostly I hated that every time he came to visit, something would make Grace cry.

  Avoiding the front of the house so they wouldn’t see me, I cut around back. Grace wasn’t between the bushes and her house. She hadn’t wedged herself into the space beneath the back steps.

  There wasn’t anywhere to hide on the other side of the house. I looked, but I didn’t see her there either. Which meant she was probably inside.

  The yelling continued, and I figured you could hear it inside even with all the windows shut. I ran around to the other side of the house and hunted for a few pebbles. Looking up at Grace’s bedroom window, I tossed one of the small rocks at the glass.

 
It clicked when it hit, and I waited. But she didn’t come. I tried again, but nothing happened. Maybe she wasn’t in her room.

  Dropping the last pebble, I ran to the back door. It was unlocked, like always, so I went in. She wasn’t watching TV or having a snack in the kitchen. I raced up the stairs, my stomachache getting worse by the second.

  Her bedroom door was open a crack, so I peeked inside. “Grace?”

  A big lump under her covers moved.

  “Gracie Bear, what are you doing?” I went in and lifted the edge of the covers so I could see underneath.

  She was curled up with her arms grasping her knees. Her eyes were red, her cheeks streaked with tears.

  It made me want to punch something.

  “Can I come in your blanket fort?”

  She sniffed. “It’s not a good fort.”

  “Do you want to build a better one?”

  She shook her head.

  It made me so angry when she looked sad.

  I lifted her comforter and crawled inside. She scooted over to make room as the blanket settled over the top of us. The air was warm under here, but it smelled good. Like laundry soap.

  “My mom’s mad at my dad,” she said, her voice small.

  “Yeah. Do you know why?”

  “He was supposed to take me to Seattle to go to the big zoo. Now he says he can’t.” She sniffed. “Have you ever been to that zoo?”

  “No.”

  “Me neither. Mom said there are zebras and giraffes and gorillas. And you can watch penguins swim in a pool.”

  I thought for a second. “Well, if your dad can’t take you, I will. It’s only five years until I can drive. I bet Grandad will let me borrow the truck and we’ll go, just you and me.”

  She smiled a little. That made me feel better. And made me want to make her smile more.

  I dug in my pocket, wondering if I had anything left from our last trip to the Sugar Shack for snacks. My fingers found a few empty wrappers, but I still had one stick of gum.

  “Here.” I held it out to her. “It’s my last piece. Want it?”

  She smiled again and took it. “Thanks. Let’s split it.”

  Without waiting for me to answer, she opened the gum and ripped the pink strip in half. She handed one side to me and popped the other in her mouth.

  Gum could fix a lot of things.

  The air beneath the comforter was getting hot and stifling with two of us under here. I tossed it aside and hopped off the bed.

  “Come on. Let’s go.”

  She sat up and wiped her eyes. “Where?”

  “Outside.”

  I reached for her hand and helped her slide off the bed. Smacking our gum, we ran downstairs and out the back door.

  Her dad’s voice boomed out front and she flinched. My first thought was to get her away from the arguing, but he made me so mad. He was supposed to take her to the zoo, and instead he’d made her cry. He was such a dumb jerk.

  I grabbed her hand and led her around the side of the house, heading for the front.

  “Where are we going?” she whispered.

  “I have an idea.”

  We stopped next to the porch and crouched low so they couldn’t see us. Miss Naomi had her hands on her hips and she looked mad. Scary mad. It wasn’t good when Grace’s mom made that face. It meant you were in big trouble.

  Her dad had his back to us and his arms were crossed. But more importantly, his car was parked close by.

  I took the gum out of my mouth and held out my hand. “Give me your gum.”

  “But it still has flavor.”

  I grinned. “Trust me. I have an idea.”

  As if she could read my mind—and sometimes I figured she could—she smiled back and handed me her chewed-up gum. “Do it.”

  I mushed our two pieces of gum together and watched Miss Naomi. I’d have to make a run for it and hope she didn’t see me.

  “Don’t get caught,” Grace whispered.

  “I won’t. But if I do, just run. I won’t tell them you were here.”

  Staying low, I darted toward the car. The grown-ups kept arguing. I stretched the sticky wad of gum so it would cover more area and stuck it to the driver’s side door handle, right where he’d grab it.

  Grace clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from giggling out loud as I ran back to her.

  “Let’s go.”

  Grabbing each other’s hands, we made a run for it, dashing for the creek. By the time we splashed through the water, Grace wasn’t crying anymore. Her blond hair streamed behind her and she smiled big.

  She made me feel kind of funny when she did that.

  We kept going until the sound of her parents fighting faded behind us. Narrow pine trees replaced the grass and gardens that grew in our yards, their needles covering the ground. This was still our territory, although we had to be careful not to go too far. There were bears in the hills, and coyotes and who knew what else. I was pretty sure I could keep a coyote from hurting Grace, but I didn’t want to come face to face with a bear.

  Plus, if we couldn’t hear Gram calling us in for dinner, we’d get in trouble. I was already going to get it for the gum on Mr. Miles’ car, but I didn’t care. It was worth it.

  We stopped when we got to a tall maple. It was a great climbing tree. Grace went up first, nimbly scaling the low branches. She was the best tree climber in Tilikum. She wasn’t scared to go up really high. That wasn’t the main reason she was my best friend, but it was one of them.

  I followed and scooted out onto a thick branch to sit beside her. I had a fresh scrape on my leg, probably from the bark, but it wasn’t bleeding and it only stung a little, so I ignored it.

  Our legs dangled high above the ground. It felt like nothing could get us up here. Nothing could hurt us. It was me and Grace against the world.

  Without saying anything, she leaned her head on my shoulder and grabbed my hand. I rested my head on top of hers. I liked it when she did this. It gave me a funny feeling in my stomach, like when she smiled really big, but it was a good feeling, not a bad one.

  I wished I had more gum to give her, but I didn’t. So I just sat with her, swinging my legs and holding her hand.

  2

  Asher

  Age 21

  I stood looking out the upstairs window, like a puppy who’d just caught sight of his owner. Craning my neck to see, my face close to the glass. I hadn’t come upstairs intending to stand here with my hands on the window frame, leaning so I could get a better view of my neighbor’s house. Although now that I was up here, I couldn’t remember why I’d come in the first place.

  Grace was home for the summer.

  My lip twitched in an almost-smile as I watched her get out of her beat-up Toyota Corolla. Her blond hair was in a ponytail and she wore a loose t-shirt and cut-offs, a pair of flip-flops on her feet. She paused outside her car, her hands on the open door, and looked around, like she was taking it all in.

  Our houses sat at the end of a private drive, the narrow road bumpy with potholes. Her mom’s house was newer than ours, but you wouldn’t know by looking at it. The front porch was a patchwork of reclaimed wood my brothers and I had used to shore it up, and the whole thing needed a fresh coat of paint. The yard was tidy, mostly because Gram treated it like an extension of her gardens. Flowers bloomed in window boxes, and my brothers and I took care of mowing the lawn. But the whole place still looked tired and worn.

  What was Grace thinking out there? Was she glad to be home? Or was she wishing she’d stayed in Pullman, where she was going to college? Maybe wishing she’d kept her job there over the summer so she wouldn’t have to come back. So she could still see her boyfriend.

  The hint of a smile on my lips melted into a scowl. Grace was dating some shithead at school. Actually, I had no idea if he was a shithead. She’d never brought him home, so I hadn’t met him.

  My eyes darted to the passenger seat of her car, an awful thought hitting me like a truck. Had she brought him
with her?

  My grip on the window trim tightened. The thought of spending the summer watching Grace with her college boyfriend made me want to put my fist through the glass.

  Not that I had any right to be angry that she was dating someone.

  Grace Miles was the literal girl next door. Sweet, pretty, and smart, with a stubborn streak that was as unshakable as the mountains we lived in. We’d grown up together. It hadn’t been that long ago that the land surrounding our two houses had been our entire world. We’d been friends for most of our lives, but we’d never dated. And we certainly weren’t dating now.

  I released my grip on the window frame. Her passenger seat was empty. No boyfriend, shithead or otherwise.

  Truthfully, I didn’t want the guy to be a shithead. I wanted him to be great, because more than anything, I wanted Grace to be happy. She should have been dating a guy who was awesome—who treated her like a treasure. That was what she deserved.

  “Stop licking the glass.”

  I whipped around and shot a glare at Logan. The floors up here creaked, so either my brother had been trying to sneak up on me, or I’d been too distracted to hear him. Probably the latter.

  “How about I kick your ass?”